//------------------------------//
// A Princess' Hope 
// Story: Those Left Behind 
// by the7Saviors 
//------------------------------//

I don't know how long it took for us to calm down enough to discuss what happened due to the eclipse and lack of Stars, but eventually Cadence and I had regained our faculties... somewhat.

Cadence was a mess.

Her mane and tail were ratty and disheveled, and her eyes were puffy and bloodshot -- not that I looked much better. I could tell that Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were affected too, but they had a lot more experience handling grief, as old as they were.

And so we all sat there on that deadened patch of land feeling hollow, but determined to get to the bottom of what had happened. Princess Luna cleared her throat and began.

"This... isn't any more pleasant for me to explain than it is for you to hear it, but nevertheless, you all need to hear what I have to say."

Celestia nodded solemnly while Cadence and I just waited silently for Luna to continue.

"As I am sure my sister has told you, the land surrounding us is dead. There is nothing but dry empty desert for miles and much of the environment is unrecognizable."

Luna looked to her sister and Celestia nodded once, picking up where the midnight blue alicorn left off.

"It is for this reason, that Luna and I had such a difficult time getting our bearings," she paused, "and it's also why we didn't recognize the mountain for what it was."

Another brief, but heavy, moment of silence descended over the four of us before Celestia moved on.

"Luna and I flew in opposite directions to cover more ground, and while I didn't see anything of note, Luna went to investigate the mountain."

"At first, I didn't see anything other than a nondescript mountain," Luna continued, "but upon closer inspection, I found... significant evidence of a city buried under an almost impossible amount of rubble."

Cadence began tearing up again, but I just sat there, too stunned to react. Luna seemed to be having a hard time getting her next words out -- gritting her teeth and clenching her eyes shut as she turned to Celestia.

"Sister... Tia, I..." she wiped her eyes and tried to set her face in a determine frown as she spoke, "...I found our castle buried at the bottom of the cliff. There's nothing left of it, or the city."

"And I assume our subjects are..." Celestia began, only for Luna to cut her off with a slow shake of her head. She cast a worried glance in mine and Cadence's direction. I tried to put on a brave face as I nodded for her to continue.

Luna gave me another worried frown before sighing and turning back to Celestia.

"I did search the rubble for survivors, but I found naught but ash."

"And you searched the entire city?" Celestia pressed. I could hear a note of desperation in her voice despite her cool demeanor, "you left no stone unturned?"

"Well no," Luna admitted, "I searched as much as I could, but some areas I couldn't reach and even with my magical strength, I would be hard pressed to move every single piece of rubble on the mountain."

"Then I will help you," Celestia declared, flaring out her wings, "if there's anypony left alive, we need to find them."

"Wait, Princess!" I called out as Celestia made to fly off, "what about us?"

Celestia's eyes widened in realization and she settled back down to the ground.

"Forgive me, Twilight," she said, looking somewhat ashamed, "I am overeager to see to the safety of... what remains of my little ponies. I failed to consider your feelings on the matter -- yours and Cadence's."

Cadence wiped her eyes and trotted closer to me, resting a hoof on my shoulder as she looked at Celestia.

"You and Aunt Luna go ahead," she said -- a bit of strength returning to her voice, "I'll stay with Twilight."

"Very well," Celestia said with a small nod, "stay safe you two. There's still so much we don't know about our current situation, and I'm still wary of whatever that beast was."

"Indeed," Luna added, taking to the sky, "it may be gone for now, but we don't know when that monstrosity will rear its head again."

Celestia spread her wings and rose to meet her sister.

"At the very least we can use the mountain as a reference point -- though I'm not sure exactly how useful it will be given the drastic change to the landscape..." she looked at the mountain with a scowl before looking down at us again, "we can't risk sending up a magic flare lest the beast see it, so for the time being we will communicate via long range Telepathy."

"It is a taxing spell if used overlong so only communicate if it is an emergency," Luna added before turning to Celestia, "If there is nothing else, sister, I will be going on ahead."

With that, the dark alicorn took off towards Mount Canterhorn. Celestia watched her go for a moment before turning back to Cadence and I.

"If you're headed anywhere, I recommend looking for Ponyville first," Celestia suggested, "I didn't see it, but like with Mount Canterhorn, I may not have recognized it even if I did."

I nodded in response.

"That was already my first destination, Princess," I replied. Before looking off in a random direction, "I just hope my friends are okay..."

Celestia gave Twilight a nod and a sad smile before flying after her sister.

"Don't worry, Twilight," Cadence said, with a reassuring smile, "I'll help you look."

I felt my heart twist itself in knots at the thought of what might have befallen the other girls and my number one assistant.

"Thanks, Cadence," I said with a sad, but grateful smile, "if anything happened to them..." I clench my eyes shut, holding back more tears, "On top of Shiny and my parents--"

"Don't," Cadence said, putting a hoof over my muzzle, "we can't give up hope yet. it's like Luna said, she hasn't searched the whole city yet and there might be survivors."

I looked at her silently for a moment before pushing her hoof aside and nodding.

"Yeah," I agreed, "Yeah, you're right, Cadence. I can't give up now -- not yet," I scanned the my surroundings, trying to find some sort of starting point, "first we need to find Ponyville and make sure my friends are alright."

"Now, that's the Twilight I know," Cadence said, poking me in the nose. I snorted and batted her hoof away before taking to the air.

"Come on Cadence, this is serious," I replied with a frown. Cadence giggled and followed after me. 

"I know, Twilight," she said as she wrapped me in a hug, "I just wanted to lighten the mood a bit, that's all."

I pushed myself away with a small smile of appreciation.

"Well thanks for that then," I sighed and looked away, "I guess we could use a bit of cheer after all this."

Cadence nodded.

"Now what are you waiting for?" she asked gesturing to the skies ahead, "lead the way!"

I smiled once more before heading southward from the mountain -- or at least, what I hoped was southward.





Cadence and I flew around the empty landscape for what felt like hours, always making sure to keep what was left of Mount Canterhorn in sight. I actually found it rather hard to see what was below me and I was beginning to wish I had learned some sort of sight enhancement spell.

We flew in relative silence, both of us most likely afraid to tell one another what was on our minds.

I tried to stay positive, but that was extremely hard to do when the knowledge that everypony you loved may have been reduced to ash.

The endless dry wasteland that surrounded us everywhere we looked wasn't helping matters either.

It's almost as though we were the only survivors of some sort of apocalypse...

I tried to shake the thought -- tried to remind myself that the world was bigger than just Equestria and that the other races of Equus might've survived -- but I just couldn't. I looked behind me to see Cadence idly scanning the ground, like I should've been doing, and frowned.

There was something else that was bugging me, and after a moment's thought, I decided I had to bring it up -- no matter how much it hurt.

I needed to know.

"Hey, um... Cadence?" I called out, "can I ask you something?" 

Cadence looked up and smiled.

"Of course, Twilight," she replied, "you know you can ask me anything."

We'll see about that... I thought with a grimace.

"You said that you couldn't feel any love at all," I began, "but what about me and the other Princesses? Can you not feel anything from us?"

I expected... well, I'm not sure what I expected, but it certainly wasn't for Cadence to smile back at me.

"No, I can't," Cadence said with a small shake of her head, "and I know what you're thinking, Twilight."

She flew closer so that we were side by side.

"At first I was devastated -- and to tell you the truth, I still should be -- but then I started thinking the same thing you are now," she briefly glanced at Mount Canterhorn before turning her gaze back to me, "I wondered why I couldn't sense the love coming from you, Aunt Celestia, or Aunt Luna. Eventually I came to the conclusion that I had somehow lost my connection to Love Magic."

"What?!" I cried in shock, "Cadence that's terrible!"

She nodded with a solemn frown before breaking into a small smile.

"Like I said, normally I would be devastated," she continued, "but considering our current circumstances I'm actually somewhat grateful."

I did take a moment to consider her words and, after a moment, I slowly nodded in understanding.

"I get it," I replied, "because you're incapable of sensing our love, it would stand to reason that even if there were other ponies that had survived, you wouldn't be able to sense them anyway."

"Exactly," Cadence said with a nod, "I never thought I'd be relieved to know that my magic didn't work."

I chose not to respond to the comment -- mostly because it kind of disturbed me.

What does it say about our situation that the Princess of Love is glad that she isn't connected to the one thing she embodies?

"Twilight look!"

I shook myself out of my thoughts and turned to see Cadence gesturing to something below us. I followed her gaze and suddenly found myself conflicted at what I saw.

Directly below us, barely visible in the low light, was the Golden Oaks Library.

Or what I thought was the Golden Oaks Library.

Honestly it was hard to tell -- the only thing giving it away was the door shaped hole at the base of the massive blackened tree stump.

At first I was relieved to see something familiar -- but that only lasted for a second when I realized what the current state of the tree meant.

I had left Spike to take care of the library while I was in Canterlot.

Without so much as a word to Cadence, I flew down to the stump and landed just outside the doorway. I think Cadence called my name but I wasn't sure nor did I care as I ran through the empty doorway. 

The only thing that mattered right then was finding my number one assistant.

"SPIIIKE!"

I only made it a few hoof-lengths into the destroyed library before I was stopped by a veritable mountain of debris.

"Spike!" I cried as I frantically tossed the rubble aside, "Spike, can you hear me? Say something, please!"

I heard Cadence slowly making her way inside, but I ignored her as I continued to search the debris.

"Twilight..."

I whipped around to face my old foalsitter, fear and panic coursing through every nerve in my body.

"Cadence! Help me move this stuff so we can find Spike!"

I didn't wait for her reply, instead opting to continue searching through the debris.

I heard Cadence sigh before a baby blue aura surrounded a pile of rubble next to me.

We spent what I felt was the better part of an hour searching for Spike in this mess. I even triple checked the debris to make sure I hadn't accidentally moved him along with everything else, but in the end, we couldn't find him anywhere.

I sat silently in front of the cleared space near the doorway.

This isn't happening. This can't be happening.

"Twilight?"

I can't lose Spike. Not Spike.

Not my number one assistant.

"Twilight, listen to me..."

I've know him all his life, and when things went to Tartarus, I wasn't there with him -- I wasn't there for him.

I'm a terrible big sister.

No...

I'm a terrible mo--

"TWILIGHT!"

I was roughly shaken out of my thoughts by a worried Cadence, and it was only then that I realize I had been openly sobbing.

I hiccuped and looked at the pink alicorn through teary eyes.

"Twilight, I know this looks bad," Cadence said, pulling me into a tight hug, "but don't lose hope just yet," she pulled away and looked me in the eye as she spoke, "ruined as it is, we still have a whole town to search. Spike and the rest of your friends might still be hiding around here somewhere."

I sniffed and wiped my tears away, trying desperately to pull myself together.

"I..." I shook my head smiled, "thank you, Cadence, and you're right. There's still a lot of other places to search."

Ponyville may have been a small town, but it wasn't that small. There were plenty of places to hide out in case of an emergency and we had only just arrived.

It was entirely possible that Spike and the others had found somewhere safe to hide.

As Cadence and I stepped outside the ruined library, I swept my gaze across the area in front of me. Several of the structures were completely gone, with only a few crumbling buildings here and there.

It wasn't much, but it was something.

I just had keep looking. 

I just needed to hold on to the hope that everypony was safe and sound somewhere in all this destruction.

It was starting to look like hope was all I had left.